The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 - 5A
Loose coverage
ver the past six months, I've
read roughly 50 to 60 articles
directly about the current
state of sports broadcasting on televi-
sion. The articles are basically all the
same.After praising a few announcing
crews of yesteryear, almost all of the
articles conclude that at the moment,
sports coverage blows. Hard.
And I can't disagree. Most of
today's announcing crews just aren't
cutting it. From Joe Buck and his
moral high horse to the overall ridic-
ulousness of Bill Walton, the national
sports announcing crews are for the
most part pretty weak. In fact, most
of the better announcing
crews are local ones, only
because they consistently
follow one team and can
learn their respective ins-
and-outs.
But the far greater prob-
lem in the sports broad-
casting scene are the studio
analysts and talking heads
that ESPN loves to parade MIC
around throughout the day. PASS
Currently, the central prob-
lem common to them is that
far too many of these "talents" are
too preoccupied with making outra-
geous claims that will garner them
attention - rather than making logi-
cal points or highlighting important
information.
The worst perpetrators of all are
Sean Salisbury and Skip Bayless.
Salisbury, a journeyman quarterback
for eight years in the NFL, is now
just a loud meathead who frequently
argues about nothing with egghead
Jon Clayton on SportsCenter. Bay-
less, the prized possession of ESPN
2's "Cold Pizza," has made a name for
himself by pissing everyone off and
being an all-around jackass.
The most frustrating part about
the act that these guys - and many
of their associates - put on, is that
it's an act. Salisbury and Bayless may
be the two biggest douchebags on
the planet, but I suspect they're just
minor douchebags who play up their
douchebagness because they want
other people to talk about how much
they suck.
But the thing is, I can't remem-
ber this happening prior to the past
seven or so years. Granted, I'm not
very old, but I've always been one to
recognize an asshole. And sure, How-
ard Cosell was by all accounts a dick,
and sports writers have been yelling
at each other on ESPN's "The Sports
Reporters" for years, but it was never
this bad.
So who's to blame: The Round
'!
,
S.
Mound of Rebound, one Charles Bar-
kley. The NBA Hall of Famer - pre-
viously known for his incredibly bad
golf swing, prolific bar fights, massive
gambling losses and, most important,
"Barkley Shut Up and Jam" for SNES
and Sega Genesis - ushered in the
new era of sports TV personalities
when he joined TNT's "Inside the
NBA" crew in 2000.
Early on in the '00-'01 NBA sea-
son, Barkley made a name for himself
in the broadcasting world by being
Charles Barkley. The man literally
has no filter. He criticizes TNT, his
coworkers, players, referees and any-
thing else that pops into
his mind without thinking
of the ramifications. And
that's why "Inside The
NBA" is more entertaining
than most regular-season
NBA games and why Bark-
ley is such a treat to watch.
You believe everything
he says because he's just a
HAEL crazy motherfucker who
MAN calls it like he sees it.
So why is this Barkley's
fault? Well, after Barkley
attracted tons of attention with his
brazen approach, others saw this asa
way to make a name for themselves.
TV personalities who may not even
like Barkley (in fact, many of them
Sports coverage is
now nearly as bad
as Fox melodrama.
frequently use Barkley as a target of
their rage) have adopted his over-the-
top demeanor to fit them. Because
Barkley is by nature an extreme per-
sonality, talking heads with tamer
personalities saw the success Bark-
ley created and decided to crank up
their respective schtick hoping to
attain the attention of sports radio
hosts and fans across the country.
As a result, Salisbury is overly argu-
mentative and militant, and Bayless
is overly self-righteous and preachy..
They're all trying to play a character,
and Barkley is the only one playing
himself.
Now if he could just do something
about those T-Mobile commercials ...
Well, nobody's perfect.
- Douchebaggery? E-mail
Passman at mpass@umich.edu.
Now
is the
'Time'
RESIDENT STRING
TRIO LIVENS UP
NORTH CAMPUS
By CATHERINE SMYKA
DailyArts Writer
At the ski-lodge-esque Stearns Building in
the corner of North Campus, the fireplace and
cozy auditorium sweetly
contrasted the bitter cold
last Wednesday. But the Time for
audience would have been Three
all smiles with or without
the decor. Time for Three, Friday at8p.m.
a string trio from the Cur- and Sunday
tis Institute of Music cur- at4p.m.
rently at the University in Free
residence, could have put Friday at the Stearns
a California native stuck Building, Sunday at
in Michigan weather in a RackhamAuditorium
good mood with their two-
violin-one-bass setup. They will return to the
University for shows this Friday and Sunday,
with future performances coming in March.
In less than two hours, violinists Zach-
ary DePue, Nicholas Kendall and double
bassist Ranaan Meyer touched on classical,
bluegrass, jazz and country-western fiddling,
with moments of improvisation. Their first
song incorporated seven different styles. At
this masterclass, Time for Three performed
for Music School students and talked exten-
sively about the origins of the group's style
and ideas behind its music. Students came for
get an inside-professional perspective. A gen-
eral description of their music is this: If silent
films had used Time for Three's music, there
would never have been a need to create talking
pictures. The group's music really says it all.
Passionate and in high spirits, Time for
Three opened with a soft Irish melody. Even-
tually, Meyer abandoned his bow to play bass
with his fingers. The violins ditched their pre-
vious melody and switched tempos and genres.
DePue and Kendall played so fast their bows
were barely touching the violins, and they
began alternatively playing with their fingers
and their bows every couple of notes. The per-
formers looked at each other and smiled. They
finished "Wyoming 307" laughing.
"Our pieces are forever changing," Meyer
said. "Sometimes if you make a mistake
onstage the other two guys like it better that
way and it becomes part of the music."
Midterms got you this weekend? Don't worry: Time for Three will be back in March..
Anothersong, "Bradford Commission," was
composed by the trio for the 125th anniversa-
ry of the oldest oil refinery in America. From
waking to working, the song plays a refinery
worker's morning routine, right through the
konks and bangs of the refinery itself, and
ends "very visionary, with optimism for the
future," according to Meyer.
The trio met while attending the Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
"Of everyone there, we stuck out. It's rare to
find classical musicians who improvise," Ken-
dall said. "That's how we found each other."
Although the two violinists claim Meyer
has done a large part of the writing, he insist-
ed that, "the three of us are all composers and
arrangers."
"We compose our material like a garage
band, with a lot of trial and error to hear what
works," Meyer said.
Though they have been together for five
years, this is their first residency as a group.
During their residency, they hope to encour-
age students at the masterclass to branch out
in their music.
"The paths that are paved are not necessar-
ily the ones you have to walk down," DePue
told students.
The performers have a virtuosic, raw talent.
A BRIEF RECAP OF TIME FOR
THREE'S HISTORY:
* At Philadelphia's Curtis Institue of Music,violinists Zach-
ary DePue and Nicolas Kendall realized they shared an affinity
for country and bluegrassstylesof violin.
* In the late '90s, the duo merged with bassist Ranaan
Meyer, who broughtwith him a distinct jazz style.
" The three developed a more contemporary approach to
classical music, which included the urge to improvise.
. Performed on NPR, FOX's "Good Morning Philadelphia"
and at Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall GangCamp.
From offering individual coaching throughout
their time in Ann Arbor to sending an open
invitation to jam with students, DePue, Ken-
dall and Meyer earnestly wanted to help, com-
pose, learnfrom, hang out with and encourage
students.
"This group - we're all on the same train
and perhaps we're a few cars ahead because
we've had more time to do it," Kendall said.
"We found a career by being creative and open
minded and sharing each other's experience.
We're only here to provide a perspective."
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